Ahead of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, observed by United Nations on November 29, UN Secretary General Antònio Guterres delivered a message in favour of the two state solution.

“I urge Israel, Palestine and all others with influence to restore the promise and viability of the two-state solution premised on two states living side by side in peace, harmony and within secure and recognized borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both,” Guterres said in his statement.

The following day on November 24, the European Union (EU) condemned the Israeli demolition of around twenty shops in Shu’fat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem.

They also condemned more widely the Israeli settlement policy in the city, according to Ma’an News Agency.

i24News reported the plans from Jerusalem municipality to build some 800 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo and Ramot in East Jerusalem, and the expulsion of 700 Palestinians living in the Silwan neighborhood were also condemned by the EU.

Following Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson of the EU's High Representative Federica Mogherini stated “the policy expansion in East Jerusalem continues to undermine the possibility of a two-state solution, with Jerusalem as the future capital of both states,” as reported in Ma’an.

“The European Union is strongly opposed to Israel’s settlement policy, illegal under international law, and actions taken in that context, such as forced transfers, evictions and demolitions,” Kocijancic emphasized.

Settlement construction has significantly increased since US President Donald Trump came to office, according to Israeli organisation Peace Now.

As an illustration, in 2017 and 2018 there were, respectively, tenders for 3,154 and 3,167 settlement housing units compared with just 42 in 2016, reported Al Jazeera.

Michael Lynk, UN special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories pointed out in his November 24 statement that “despite Israel’s record of non-compliance with the directions of the international community, it has rarely paid a meaningful price for its defiance, and its appetite for entrenching its annexationist ambitions has gone largely unchecked.”

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, following his meeting with an Israeli Arab leader in September, stated that one of the three main crisis points for the conflict is “the perspective of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine that continues to be dismantled piece by piece,” reported Haaretz.

Asa Winstanley in September 2018 for the MEMO analyzed “the idea that re-partition into two states as the “pragmatic solution” began to crash against the hard reality of what the author and academic Ben White, correctly calls “the one-state reality”.”

Winstanley pointed out, in the past, a three-state solution has been mentioned several times.

This would mean the returning control of the West Bank to Jordan and control of the Gaza Strip to Egypt.